I have always had an incredible drive to work hard. When I am at work I genuinely work my tail off. I am motivated and driven and focused on getting a tremendous amount done, and all of that is positive, but my problem lies in that I often don’t know how to put things down […]
We are just two days away from a holiday weekend. And one thing I have found in life is that if you don’t make a plan in advance to do something fun, an incredible holiday weekend can come and go and you’ll find you didn’t make any great memories at all! And that would be […]
Have you smiled yet today? We don’t have to have a perfect life to have a reason to smile. Smiling is just a way to show God that we appreciate all He has given us. And each of us reading this has at least one thing to be appreciative of because the very fact we […]
It is finally starting to feel like spring outside with sunshine and warm weather and blossoms and flowers cropping up everywhere. I LOVE it! And with Spring comes Spring Cleaning. Yep, it’s time for all of us to wash our windows so the sunlight can come through. And it’s finally warm enough to open those […]
IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER (by Erma Bombeck) I would have talked less and listened more. I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded. I would have eaten the popcorn in the “good” living room and worried much less about the dirt […]
Today was AWESOME! First of all it was Mother’s Day! And as the Mother of two of my own and one daughter-in-law, I want to say that I love being a Mom! It’s the most amazing blessing ever, but let’s admit it, sometimes it can feel like all the effort and sacrifice goes unnoticed. So […]
The desire to be happy. It’s a desire shared universally. It is one thing in life we all have in common – the desire for happiness. Some people wait for happiness to find them, only to learn that this kind of happiness is temporary and it goes as quickly as it comes. Other people have […]
The Oyster Story There once was an oyster whose story I tell, Who found that some sand had got into his shell. It was only a grain, but it gave him great pain. For oysters have feelings although they’re so plain. Now, did he berate the harsh working of fate Which had brought him to […]
Each day we go through life making choices. Sometimes they are carefully thought through choices and sometimes they are impulsive. Sometimes we make them based on what we want for the future and sometimes we make them based on what we want right now. And while we all get to make our own choices, we […]
Over the weekend my husband and I went and picked up our first batch of flowers to plant in our yard. I say the first batch because it typically takes us five or six truckloads of flowers to get enough to cover the yard. Every year I try to talk him into hiring someone else […]
Drop a Pebble in the Water Drop a pebble in the water: just a splash, and it is gone; But there’s half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on, Spreading, spreading from the center, flowing on out to the sea. And there is no way of telling where the end is going to be. Drop […]
Perhaps my love for the weekends started when I was a child. Every Saturday morning we awoke to the smell of Mom’s pancakes….oh how I miss those Saturday morning pancakes being cooked by someone else! Somehow everything smells and tastes better when you don’t have to cook it yourself. And then you add to that […]
Haters, bullies, mean people…they all have one thing in common…they all suffer from one of the following: 1. They hate themselves, 2. They want to be you, or 3. They see you as a threat Think about it – “Have you ever met a hater doing better than you? Me Neither….” There are far too many […]
“Once a wise old botany teacher was speaking to a group of young and eager students. He gave them an assignment to go out by the side of some lonely road and find a small, unnoticed flower. He asked them to study the flower for a long time. “Get a magnifying glass and study the […]
Winning. It’s something that everyone wants because let’s face it, it is far more fun to win than it is to lose. But there is something that should mean more to all of us than winning does, and that is living a life of honor. In the world today it too often feels that people […]
Happy Easter everyone! I love Easter Sunday. I remember as a little girl how excited we would get to wake up and find that the Easter Bunny had left each of us a basket of brightly colored eggs and candy. I also remember how excited I was to receive a new spring Easter dress to […]
Motivation. We all need it. Not just once or twice, but every single day of our lives. If we don’t refuel our motivation tanks on a regular basis we will burn through them and find ourselves discouraged, depressed, and empty. It would be nice if we had a low fuel indicator light on our personal […]
I love that there is an international day dedicated to being happy! And the fact it falls on the first day of Spring is perfect because Springtime makes me happy! In honor of the holiday I felt it only appropriate to talk about being happy. Did you know that research has shown that happy people: […]
You probably read today’s title and wondered how it is possible for anyone to profit from failure. It is success we profit from, is it not? The profits from success may be far more obvious to everyone, but I would submit that we can profit just as greatly from failure if we choose to. My […]
Serendipity. I definitely believe in it’s magic and I look for it every day of my life…maybe that’s why so many cool serendipitous things have happened in my life! This next excerpt explains serendipity perfectly: “Serendipity is the process of making happy discoveries along the road of life. Whenever you have a clear goal that […]
Today I went down and spoke to the students at Utah Valley University. I really love speaking to the students at the colleges because as I stand on the stage and look out at their faces I can’t help but be humbled by the amazing things these young people are going to go on and […]
When I saw that quote today: “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy shoes, and that’s kind of the same thing.” I busted out laughing …and frankly after the icky week I have had I desperately needed a good laugh because laughter is supposed to be nature’s best medicine! And I need all the […]
Growing up there was a poster on one of my siblings bedroom wall that they got for free when they ordered books from the scholastic book order forms we used to get back in elementary school (ps. I loved those book orders!). The poster had a picture of a kitten that was barely hanging onto […]
As a kid I used to love reading books. I read so many books just for fun growing up and I absolutely loved doing it. The older I got, however, the more I started reading books for school assignments, and then that morphed into reading books for work matters to try and gain more knowledge […]
“If it is our nature to criticize or demean, we can cause the voices of gladness to be silenced. We need those who bring gladness into our lives. We need those who give encouragement and reflect optimism.” – Marvin Ashton What the world needs more of is people who are encouraging and optimistic. The world […]
As we age we grow wiser from life experience, which is a good thing. But sometimes as we grow older we also become a little bit jaded…almost too realistic…we often lose that sense of wonder and excitement we had as a child, and that is a not such a good thing… Now that I am […]
“Life is like a roller coaster. It has its ups and downs. But it’s your choice to scream or enjoy the ride.” That quote is great because it makes it so easy to visualize what it is saying. Yes life is indeed like being on a roller coaster. We can’t control the ups and downs […]
I was watching something the other day where s a mother to a teenage boy was busy doing her son’s laundry while her son was busy playing on his Xbox. The more I observed the situation the more I wanted to scream out “If your child is capable of conquering level 15 of their video […]
Have you ever found yourself talking with someone you are getting to know and you suddenly hit on a topic that both of you are super excited about? It’s SO FUN to find people who share your passion for something. It’s like this instant bond forms between you and you could talk for hours and […]
I cannot believe that tomorrow is Christmas! I am SO EXCITED!! But not because of any presents I will get…I’m excited because tomorrow I get to talk on Skype to my daughter Ashley who is away serving her 18 month mission for the LDS Church. We only get to talk to her once on Mother’s Day […]
